The Tale of the Golden Mockingjay
by Saltey
Summary: This is the tale of Katniss' golden pin from its creation to its rise into a symbol of a rebellion. *oneshot*


It was late spring and late in the rebellion that the old and feeble district one goldsmith first saw the Mockingjays, He watched them outside his window as he worked, stopping periodically to draw them. As the rebellion, raged on in the distance he began to carve the birds likeness into his gold, they enthralled him, the unnatural beauty of something that shouldn't exist, the way they returned the tunes he whistled and most of all what they stood for. You see they shouldn't have existed the old man's Mockingjays, they were half mutation creatures, born of the mutated Jabberjay and the natural mockingbird. Orders from the capitol were to destroy them on sight, but the old man couldn't see what harm a small bird could do, anyway he wasn't one for following capitol orders.

One day he started turning his Mockingjay paintings into beautiful golden pins, he made thirteen of them in total one for each district and began to think of ways to deliver them to the rebels to support them in his own way. His chance came late one evening when he came across two rebel soldiers rooting through his garbage, he invited the two men into his home and spoke to them a while, the two were returning to their districts after capitol soldiers had destroyed the rest of their platoon. "The rebellion is crushed" they told the old man who listened to their tale silently.

As the men left the next morning, he handed them a pin each, "Take them home, give them to your wives or mothers and remember why you fought no matter what they do to you" the men took the pins and headed home, one to district 8, the other to district 12. When they had left the old man melted down the other eleven pins, knowing that they would be of no use to a dead rebellion.

The district eight rebel was captured trying to board an empty goods train heading into his district, the capitol men shot him through the head and the pin was buried with him. The district twelve rebel returned home, where he hid the pin away and returned to life in the mines, he took a wife and fathered three children and when the eldest was reaped for the twelve hunger games he hung himself.

The pin remained hidden until the year of the thirty third games when one day an expectant mother and her husband moved into the house. As her husband worked in the mines the wife stumbled on a floor board of the rickety old house. That evening she asked her husband to nail it down when he returned home and as the man was about to repair the floor he spotted a flash of silver. Pulling up a small tin he places it on the table for his wife to inspect as he repairs the floor.

The wife opens the box and gasps, there were documents in here that would get her a death sentence if found, she begins to throw them into the fire, letters, photographs and maps all of it, until she reaches the bottom. There lays the pin innocently glistening under its layer of dust, she can barely believe her eyes as she shows it to her husband who stares at it for a while. "its gold" he says eventually "real gold, we could sell it"

"Who'd have the money to buy it" replies his wife "and what if they don't believe where we found it" she looks at the ashes in the fire, the destroyed remains of its former owner's life. They decide to keep it, so they hide it and forget it for another twelve years until their son finds it and takes the small pin in his pocket to his very first reaping, the pin keeps him safe and after his last year he visits his girlfriend and her twin sister.

"Take it" he tells the girl, "it's my good luck charm it'll keep you safe in the reaping." The girl takes it but the odds aren't in her favour and the girl is reaped for the 50th huger games. The pin witnesses the horrors of the arena for its first time that year and it is returned to district twelve along with the girl's body, her sister takes the pin and tries to return it to the boy but he refuses it, telling her its cursed now.

The sister can't see any harm in keeping it; it's the games that killed her sister not this small pin. She keeps it and it protects her through her final reapings and when the pain of her sisters loss gets too much she steals her mothers morphling and it saves her. Someway along her life she finds love and marries a great man and has a daughter to whom she in a rare moment of cohesiveness gives the pin to, to protect her from her Aunt's fate. When she discovers her daughter gave the pin to her friend who was going into the games she is proud.

The pin became all it was meant to be and more during its second time in the capitol, it was able to shine and be noticed by all, worn by the girl on fire. As it entered and won its second games it became a lucky charm and a beacon of hope for the districts everything its long dead creator intended. Returning home on the chest of the girl it was again offered back to its previous owner who again refused it.

The pin became well worn over the next year as the star-crossed lovers filled every television screen in the country its image was replicated again and again; on bags, hats, watches, earrings, necklaces, crackers and more. Everyone wanted the image of the Mockingjay on their person and some even realised what it stood for. The pin remained in the hands of the girl on fire as it entered its third games and as its owner rose to become the Mockingjay. It became an image for rebellion; everyone knew its true meaning now.

The second rebellion ends in a victory for the rebels and the pin isn't needed anymore, neither is the half mad girl who owns it, both are banished home to the ruins of district twelve. Where is the pin now you ask, well it lies in a draw in the old victors village, wrapped in a silver parachute alongside a small pearl and a necklace that shares its image, waiting in the dark to be passed on again from mother to daughter.

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><p><strong>Hope you liked please give me your opinion either way :)<strong>


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